Is Africa too full of 'lazy' intellectuals?

[Malika]

" ‘You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.’

 

Read on, if you can get past the offensive tone. Walter says: ‘You, my friend, flying with me and all your kind are lazy. When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.’ "

 

 

Source:

 

http://www.the-star.co.ke/business/andrea-bohnstedt/60030-is-africa-too-full-of-lazy-intellectuals

 

or

 

http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/

 

 

What is your take Soler?

[Malika]

"I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”"

 

Thought provoking this is - what are the overflowing schools in Africa for if the cant produce productive intellectuals?

[Gheelle.T]

I saw this while ago, and i guess someone also posted it on SOL. I thought of it as if the writer(very creative) made up the whole story just to provoke us Africans to do better. But regardless of whether the white banker said it or if it's a made up story, the whole thing is based on generalization and exaggeration. Africa is a young continent and it's people suffered a lot under colony, corrupted leadership and above all, competitions of world powers. That's said, the world has not started one day nor did Europe, American or South Asians woke up one day and started making machines. There will come the day when Africa/n countries will take the lead.

One last thing, Engineers and intellectuals invent, think, and design things, it's however the system that makes into production. And Africa suffers not from intellectual laziness, but rather corrupted leadership.

[Blessed]

Actually going back home for the first time since I was a child, I was thoroughly impressed with the innovations that I've witnessed and it seemed in some cases people did observe and take note. Africa is a poor, developing continent which is at constant war with itself, they don't have the best universities because they can afford the best faculty and resources. This is what slows Africa down.

 

Secondly, the article(s) are extremely Eurocentric,sometimes Africans like doing things their way, even if it's been done like that for centuries.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

I thought of it as if the writer(very creative) made up the whole story just to provoke us Africans to do better.

Waa qoraal la iska alifay.

 

Malika, qoraalkaan Soomaali badan ayuu quseeyaa, though.

[Carafaat]

The author has a point, African men tend to be lazy(me included). I think it has a biological explanation.

[NASSIR]

Africa is not largely politically independent. It was and still dependent on colonial powers as a source of raw materials. A comparison with North and South Korea is warranted, one is being punished/sanctioned, isolated from the world market whereas the other one enjoys the privilege to be a WTO member and thus do business with the developed world based on delineated rules that keep guard of economic principles and the Balance of Payments or what is known as trade balance. Any revolutionary challenge that aims to replace an installed ruler is, as we have known, aborted or punished like the North Korea's case.

Africa needs a transparent and democratic governments, economic integration and common defence pact. We also need to develop our own market mechanism that would enable us to form multinational corporations because that is how jobs are created and resources pooled from both the private and public sector.

 

Our intellectuals do not have a peaeful environment and willing government to which they can lend their creativity, expertise and knowledge.

[Carafaat]

NASSIR;787044 wrote:

Our intellectuals do not have a peaeful environment and willing government to which they can lend their creativity, expertise and knowledge.

I dont agree. African goverment's are mostly quite willing to be advised and supported, specially on technical issue's. How often did you try to advise your local/regional/national goverment in Africa, ya Nassir?